Day 362 - Garden report part 2.

After mowing, you can see a patch of bare ground here and there.  A truly dedicated gardener would then loosen the soil with a fork and pull up the clumps of grass in the rows where the soil is loose, then only run the tiller between the rows. 

Not me.  I'm thinking of widening the rows anyway.  It's all going under!

Why do I always have to come home to a television blaring explosions, gunshots and car chases?  The only moment of quiet is when the microwave knocks the Roku off the network.   It doesn't seem to bother Werewolf--I can only hope he's used to it.

Day 361 - no dogs in garden -(

So here's the weekend garden report.  Part 1.







I started with this.  (North bed only; the south bed is even worse.)  I had to mow before before I could till, and before I could mow I had to remove all of the wood borders and pick up a major portion of the cardboard that made walkways between the rows.

I left the peppers alive, as you can see in the photo, but Saturday night a frost came down and killed them dead.  I might as well have pulled them on Saturday.

Day 360 - about to go for a walk but first...

I just made an awesome Three Sisters Stew! 

It's true the beans were slightly overcooked--10 minutes in the pressure cooker manual means 10 minutes, not the 12 I gave them.  And it's true the skin of delicatta squash is not as melt-away smooth as a zucchini's.  But the flavor is better.

Note as to cinnamon:  I just don't get it.  Must be my heritage.  I added 1/16 of a teaspoon where the recipe called for 1/2 and it was still somehow wrong.  Without the cinnamon this would have be a 5-star recipe.

Day 357 - fall at last?

Cool front -> especially long walk -> high 61 tomorrow -> must bring in begonia cuttings for overwinter!

Also, frisky dogs!  No picture--I couldn't get them still long enough.



I guess this means I got to work outside on Saturday.

Day 356 - things dogs don't notice

Hard to tell from this picture, but what you don't see is a cedar tree.  (American Juniper.)  All of them up the hill are dying.  After a summer of excessive heat + drought, then a summer of near-excessive heat, they're dying off in droves.  The only ones still healthy are the ones on our land, which is mostly bottom land and has sticker soil and possibly a higher water table.

It's going to be awfully drab-looking when I'm jogging up the hill this winter.

Day 354 - walking. Well, sort of.

f.
Since my "fast walk" means he has to trot, my little runt gets between 20 and 30 minutes of almost-continuous trotting a day.  He should be losing weight, shouldn't he?

I should start a weekly weighing--you can't feel ribs through all that fur.  And I don't want to starve him.  It's just that he's rotund and he waddles when he walks--the dog lady said he was overweight--and I've had him on a strict diet ever since. 

Day 353 - also ready!

They dig get their walk yesterday and will also today, despite it being in the upper 80s outside and humid as heck.

No supper experiment tonight.  I'm shoving frozen food in the oven and if I can find a frozen vegetable, I'll microwave it.  It's been that kind of week.

Day 351 - ready for a walk!

Sadly that was yesterday, not today.  No walk today on account of selfish humans' desire to eat out at a restaurant.  Luckily that doesn't happen too often.

Day 349 - She's eating the dry stuff for once

Ah...nature.  It's out there, and I'm in here.

Day 347 - no dog news...well...a little

And the much anticipated summation--

Which clearly proves that I'm no 'Tipsy Baker.'  The only thing we have in common is a failure in presentation.

The ambrosia was fool-proof and easy.  But the Chicken Pie--alas!  I liked it a lot and everyone else hated it.  The liver flavor was a trifle overpowering, and even I would admit (under duress) that it would have been better with dumplings and no liver pate.

The crust was really good.

On our walk today we stopped to sniff a neighbor dog.  An extremely placid Labrador that we've sniffed many times before.  And for once Izzy joined in.  Smell exchange; successful.

Day 3426 - Dogs and bones

Heaven.





I think I've finally figured out how to stop stressing out over onions.  Recipes always call for "onions." What is an onion?  It's a bulbous vegetable typically found in three colors: red, white or yellow; and in sizes ranging from golf ball to softball.  (I'm excluding "pearl onions" which are about the size of a large grape.  But recipes almost never specify color or size.  What we have here in the house are always the largest onions in the grocery store, and I can never make the conversion between how many giant onions = a recipe-sized onion?  A smart cook would measure them, but that would require (a) having a normal onion in the house to start with and (b) thinking ahead, before you're ready to chop it up.

So I found advice online at salon.com --

Small onion = 4 ounces by weight or about ½ cup chopped
Medium onion = 8 ounces, or about 1 cup chopped
Large onion = 12 ounces, or about 1½ cups chopped
Jumbo onion = 16 ounces, or about 2 cups chopped

And fyi, half of a giant onion cut is still a little bit more than a medium onion.  I don't begrudge the little bit, but at least I finally know.   I'll ignore color and just stick with the default white or red.

On to other cooking adventures.  I wanted to try using pears instead of apples in the apple crisp recipe, so last week I bought a bag of nice, ripe pears.  Things being as they were last Sunday--harried--I shoved the pears in the fruit tray and ignored them all week.  But they nagged me...

So a little while ago I pulled them out, salvaged the good in them, and came up wtih only three cups for a recipe that required five.  I could supplement with apples...but why waste good apples that Callie would eat when there were four out-of-season, dried out peaches in the fridge? 

So tonight we're going to see whether or not it's possible to put sugar on a dry-ish, untasty fruit, cover it with a crumbly crust, and fool people into thinking it is good.

I also finally tried Harriet Hands' chicken pie.  The one ingredient it requires, which I've never been able to procure, is Sell's liver pate (sold on amazon.com for $50 a case).  So I made my own.  The mixture of chicken and gravy and pate smells delicious, to me.  But then--I like liver.  I know it's not good for you but I figured the trivial amount in the pie was minimal--like a spice or a seasoning.  After all, I doubt if very many spices are good for you when consumed in quantity.

Pictures tomorrow.  If it tastes good.  I'm not going to jinx it.

Day 343 - flirting with dog disaster

* 343

On a whim today, I stopped at the library and checked out Around My French Table, a whopping big cookbook with awesome reviews by all.  Maybe it can do something for my flagging interest in cooking anything.

On our walk today, a calf tried to play with us.  But I wasn't feeling playful, anchored as I was by three dogs.  How do you play with a calf, anyhow?



Izzy's latest trick is coming up beside me when I'm standing at the kitchen counter, standing up to rest her front toes on the edge and check on what I'm doing.  Only...today when she did it, it put her nose right in sniffing range of a Swiss steak sandwich.  Dangerous behavior.

[jogging: the turn + 2 = Still hard]

Day 342 - ntr

Poor baby!  Lurking in the shadows with a human who's a very bad photographer.

Day 341 - dog be up

Monday is especially bad when it falls on a Tuesday.  Here's a shot to show that my presentation skills are as bad as The Tipsy Baker's --

No deviled eggs for dogs.  Due to mozarella cheese or some other factor, my Izzy is coming out of her corner regularly now.  But she's still not eating her supper--tonight, after she picked out the bits of meat and knocked all the dry kibble out of the dish, she came to visit me.  Yay!  And quit eating.  Boo.

I spooked a lovely big hawk out of the trees today, on my jog.  It looked like a red-tailed hawk, but it was hiding at the edge of a wooded lot like a red-shouldered hawk would.  So I dunno.

[jogging: the turn + 3 telephone poles = Hard.]

Day 340 - dratted vets

Dogs to vet today.  Izzy just had her ears checked--she's not due for shots for another two months.  Werewolf and Zack got vaccinated and I just got two hours of my life sucked away.

It's almost a relief to go back to work.

Everyone has a few demon kitty pictures, but this one's my favorite to date.

Day 339 - cool rewards

Cool whether sure whet someone's appetite.  Despite me rearranging the dining room and moving her stuff all different (same corner; different layout), Izzy's in here chowing down on dinner.  She ate all her breakfast, too--after I poured a quarter-cup milk on it.

The only picture I can find to post is this, the sign of the (changing) times--

Days are shortening and walk dogs can't be the last entry on the Sunday evening cooking schedule now.
Note that was last week's schedule.  This week I made an emergency trip to Whole Foods because the beans were moldy, and when I got back, there wasn't time to cook them.  I'll go soak them in a bit.

Day 337 - Cool dogs, happy human

Of three things I am absolutely certain.  One--claws will be cut this weekend.  Two--heartworm pills and flea drops will be administered.  Three--it will be cooler than it's been since...oh...maybe April?

They got an longer walk than ever today.  Around the turn and up to the first telephone pole.  I admit that it was just because I had some time to kill, but don't tell them.

Day 336 - just weird

Went walking a little late today.  On the way back a guy came walking past and Izzy actually wanted to go toward him.  Of all the weird things I've seen that weird dog do, that's the weirdest.

Day 335 - what I don't know about dogs....

I have my menu ready for Sunday (it's the only day I cook) and since I'm thinking of going to the store tomorrow instead of Friday, I need to write up the ingredient list.  Which I can't do because Izzy is eating.  I dare not rise from my seat for the duration.

Neither she nor Zack ate breakfast this morning.  So much for my theory.

Day 334 - dog report

Dog's eating much better these days!  Could it be the weather?  It's slightly cooler--highs in the mid eighties and lows in the upper fifties.  Considering it's October now, that's still way too warm but I'll take what I can get.  I almost felt chilly this morning.

The half of my dining room carpet that I steam cleaned on Sunday?  It stayed clean for about 48 hours.  Apparently she got stuck in the house longer than usual this morning and had a little accident.  Wait until she sees what I'm going to do to her next weekend! 

I'm going to move the furniture on the left hand side of the room out, steam clean that side, and restore the furniture but in a different arrangement.  I'll put her cage and her rug back where it is, but the couch that is currently obstructing her view of me will be gone. I hope it won't be too traumatic--I've been gradually moving it for several fays.

Day 333 - one good dog, anyway

Callie's contribution to her Germanic heritage--

Apfelkuchen.  I didn't get any but the batter left in the bowl was wicked.

On the dog front, Izzy is doing better about knowing when the mozarella cheese bits are raining on her pen area.  She'll come out to fetch them and not even take them back into her hiding place to eat.  Sooner or later she'll be taking them from my hand again.  If the cat doesn't get her.

On a soberer note, I suddenly realized that I might actually hurt Zack's windpipe with the leash and collar.  He's taken to going wild when a neighbor dog backs at us from behind a fence.  I've learned to keep a short leash on him so he doesn't get a running start and jerk himself flat.  But my little corrections--to remind him not to charge--have to be done with a gentle, pint-sized dog in mind.  I'm mentally switching back and forth between holding onto a big dog, a medium dog, and a runt--what if I messed up?

If this doesn't get under control after a few more walks I may have to get him a harness.